The International House of Mojo

Since Majesco signed on as the new publisher of Tim Schafer's upcoming game Psychonauts, it's been know that the game would be gracing PC screens along with the original announced Xbox version, but as of today Majesco has added another console to the list. It looks like Psychonauts is headed to the Playstation 2 as well.

You can read all about it along with a couple new tidbits about the game, and a quote from Tim Schafer over at IGN PS2. They also have a heaping pile of screenshots, some of them new even!

They also have the same old video trailer from back in 2002 that ends with "Only on Xbox," just to confuse you a little.

Despite Earth's so-so opinion of the G4 gaming TV station, you have to like them a little more when they do an offbeat live interpretation of the bar confrontation scene from Full Throttle.* Check it out, in high or low quality Windows Media format. Thanks to Greg from LucasFiles for pointing this out.

* Even if it's not all that funny.

He doesn't reveal that secret of course, just that the oft-quoted "Disneyland's 'Pirates of the Carribean' was the inspiration for Monkey Island" may not be the whole truth. Or the truth at all.

You won't even find a pilfered quote here from Ron's post on his grumpygamer.com blog to drag you in because if you have no interest in Mr Gilbert talking about Guybrush's origins and the inspiration for the MI games, then really, you're on the wrong site.

Source: Grumpy Gamer

YYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ME HEARTY!!!!!!1

According to a report that recently showed up on gamesindustry.biz LucasFilm's new Singapore based animation facility may be used for videogame development.

A new job advertisement posted by game publisher LucasArts suggests that the Singapore digital animation studio opened by parent company Lucasfilm earlier this year may be set to focus on videogame work.

LucasArts is currently advertising for a human resources director, who would be required to deal with "heavy travel... to office in Singapore," with the job description implying that over 50 per cent of the new director's time could be spent in the Far East location.

Considering LucasArts current policies on internally developed titles, this may mean some of the crunch work for 3rd party games published by LEC is done out of Singapore.

For more background on the Singapore Animation facility itself, read this LucasFilm press release.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Theforce.net reports confirmation of the long rumoured 'Star Wars live action TV series' (though no official announcements or press releases are yet forthcoming directly from LucasFilm).

Those hoping that the end of Star Wars movies next May would result in a reduction of LucasArts' dependence on games set in that Galaxy Far, Far Away may need to rethink.

Source: theforce.net

George Lucas film THX 1138 from 1971 has been completely digitally restorated and remastered, in a collaboration between Warner Home Video, Lucasfilm and Lowry Digital Images. It is now being released on September 14th on a two-disc special edition: THX 1138 The George Lucas Director's Cut.

For months, the restoration team removed decades' worth of dirt and scratches that had accumulated on the film's negative and meticulously restored the film?s sleek, striking images to be as clear and stunning as George Lucas intended.

What is important to know is that they did not just restore and enhance the original quality. They enhanced the film, by for example adding completely new computer-generated environments, and made CG frame recompositions. Take a look at the images that compare the Director's Cut and original THX 1138.

More info at the official site.

Looks like Majesco has put up an official page for Psychonauts, at the predictable URL of Psychonauts.com. Psychonauts.com used to point to some sort of rockabilly band called "Psycho Charger" who were formerly called "The Psychonauts," but renamed around the time Microsoft announced Tim Schafer's game in 2002. I don't know if those events are related, and I don't particularly care, but this news post would be pretty sparse if I hadn't brought it up.

Also on the Psychonauts website are a handful of brand new screenshots, and some bullet points about the game that probably came from the game's press release. Check it out.

LucasArts.com has today launched the LucasArts Game Discussion Message Boards. What's new is that now you can discuss at the moment four LucasArts games, and your passion for them, or questions about them, within LucasArts official site. The LucasArts Technical Support forum just got a big brother. You can currently discuss these four games: Mercenaries, Star Wars Battlefront, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, and Star Wars Republic Commando. The individual gameforums each have their own gamebanner on the top each page, which kind of nice, and is easier to recognize which forum you're on. The LucasArts site don't have a "Recent Activity on the Forums" on their front page yet though. You need a Lucas Online membership to post threads.